Review: Fearful Symmetry
Fearful Symmetry is a Star Trek title that has been in the works for a long time, having been postponed at least twice. After I read about the premise, I was really excited to get my hands on this book and, needless to say, I was disappointed with all the delays. So now, finally, I was informed by Amazon that Fearful Symmetry was ready for shipping and I immediately went and ordered it. Being the kind of person who devours books in a matter of hours, I raced through it in most of the free time I had in the last two days… and I’m sort of speechless. What on Earth happened to the story?
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The “story”
I don’t really know where to start here… the story doesn’t really feel like a story, partly due to the fact that it is split into two seperate threads - neither of which seems to make much progress in terms of actual narrative. In the first half of the book, I mostly felt like I was reading a collection of references to previous novels, leaving the actual story itself rather thin. It feels like an intro or perhaps a “bridge” from the previous DS9 relaunch events to a new, bigger storyline that is yet to be written. Needless to say, it ends before it really begins, leaving the reader eager to turn the book around and find out what happens next…
… and leading to a major disappointment. The second half of the book does not continue where the first half left off. Instead it describes the back story of the main villain. This part of the book essentially provides even more explanations and background for the events referenced before, weaving itself nicely into the threads that had already been discussed in the first half of the book.
To sum it up: I spent the first couple of hours catching up with the events of several previous Star Trek novels and getting introduced to what could potentially be a very exciting storyline. Then I was whipped out of that excitement and transported back in time to experience the life of the main antagonist, ultimately leading to the events that cause her transformation into an evil, soulless bitch - which is quite entertaining. But then it’s over, leaving a whole bundle of loose ends before the plot really got anywhere. Essentially, I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face with the biggest and fattest “to be continued…” ever created.
Technique
This is made twice as bad by the fact that Fearful Symmetry is actually a very well written piece of literature. Despite the little percieved progress in the narrative, Olivia Woods somehow managed to build enough suspension to keep me wondering what will happen when the story continues. If it had been badly written, I would have been happy to forget about Fearful Symmetry and move on with my life. Instead I feel like I’ve been dragged right into a mid-season hiatus ala Battlestar Galactica.
Overall
Despite the fact that Fearful Symmetry does not seem to cover much narrative ground, I can’t help but admire the skill with which it was written. If only the book at been another 50% longer, taking the story to a point at which a cliffhanger would feel more natural, this book could have been truly excellent. As it stands, Fearful Symmetry feels like a 7.5 out of 10 for me. I just hope the sequel will provide the pay-off it needs.